Refresh project documentation

Red Bear OS Team
2026-04-16 12:46:07 +01:00
parent aeac5a6d92
commit 90fa45c545
32 changed files with 1659 additions and 167 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+# Firmware in Red Bear OS
+
+## Purpose
+
+This document defines the Red Bear firmware policy.
+
+Firmware is treated as third-party runtime content, not as normal project source code.
+
+## Basic Rules
+
+- firmware is third-party
+- firmware licenses vary by vendor and artifact
+- firmware remains under its own licenses
+- firmware is redistributed unmodified
+- firmware is loaded at runtime from the filesystem
+- firmware should not be embedded into driver binaries
+
+## Source and Packaging Model
+
+Red Bear should package firmware separately from the core OS logic.
+
+Recommended package-group model:
+
+- `firmware-base`
+- `firmware-intel`
+- `firmware-amd`
+- `firmware-wifi`
+
+The current Red Bear package path for the broad upstream firmware corpus is:
+
+- `local/recipes/system/redbear-firmware/`
+
+That package is intended to stage firmware under:
+
+- `/lib/firmware/`
+
+License metadata should remain clearly separated inside the firmware tree, for example under:
+
+- `/lib/firmware/LICENSES/`
+
+## Licensing and Redistribution
+
+The practical downstream model is the same one used by Linux distributions:
+
+- Linux distributions ship `linux-firmware` as a separate package
+- the operating system itself can remain under its own license
+- firmware stays under the vendor license documented in `WHENCE` and related license files
+
+Red Bear should follow the same model.
+
+Do not claim a single Red Bear repo-wide license applies to the firmware blobs themselves.
+
+## What Red Bear Must Not Do
+
+- do not claim firmware is MIT just because Red Bear OS code is MIT-like or permissive
+- do not remove vendor license files or `WHENCE`
+- do not modify firmware blobs
+- do not merge firmware blobs into normal source trees without clear separation
+- do not assume every blob is redistributable without checking upstream `WHENCE` / license metadata
+
+## Runtime Loading Rule
+
+Drivers and userspace daemons should request firmware from the filesystem at runtime.
+
+For Red Bear, the canonical runtime path is:
+
+- `/lib/firmware/...`
+
+The current helper daemon for that model is:
+
+- `firmware-loader` providing `scheme:firmware`
+
+This keeps the architecture cleaner and legally safer than embedding blobs into binaries.
+
+## Upstream References
+
+- upstream firmware source: `linux-firmware`
+- upstream license and redistribution metadata: `WHENCE`
+- vendor-specific license files: `LICENCE.*`, `LICENSE*`
+
+## Bottom Line
+
+Red Bear can distribute a Linux-firmware-derived firmware package, but it must do so as separate
+firmware content with its own license metadata, installed under `/lib/firmware/`, and loaded at
+runtime rather than compiled into project binaries.